Info on how to take quality pictures with ANY camera

[The Snark]

I am NOT a photographer. I'm clueless. Down in the bottom 5%. Helpless and hopeless, a victim of an automatic everything camera. Strictly point, shoot and hope school.
It struck me that we have a LOT of photography expertise among our AB community members. And if a person has camera Alpha with lens Beta and does this that and the other with such and such lighting and back ground while wearing the correct shoes and hat......................................

The point is, most cameras out there, cell phones included, can take decent pictures of a persons animals. Pictures good enough to help ID them. PROVIDING certain rules are followed. So what are the rules? I've got a general idea but no idea how to properly apply them. So how about you pros chiming in and helping pound of a basic rule set to reliably get half way decent pictures?

1. Optimal focal distance for your camera. How to find it, stay within that distance, and set the shot up accordingly?
2. Lighting. Hypercritical and a potential galaxy of ways to screw up the shot if things aren't right.
Where the light source(s) should be, the intensity, the color and what else??
3. Framing? Do's, don't's and and and??
4. Shooting through glass or plastic and how to trick auto focus into not focusing on the material instead of the subject??
5. Backgrounds? Best, worst, and how to make things work under less than ideal conditions?
6. Color and contrast. How to compensate?
And I'm sure I'm missing a few.

The point here being you pros do these things in your sleep but some, many, most or all of these things often never enters the point-shoot-and-hope photographer. A simplified rule set to be followed would be of great help here.
Suggestions, comments, queries?


My wife and I are in a competition for best pictures. She with a quite decent cell phone, me with a pretty spiffy Nikon. We are both auto everything camera victims. Hands down, she's winning.

 

[DomGom TheFather]

I'm not all that into it and take most of mine with a Walmart phone but i get some good shots. What are you looking to do?

 

[me and my Ts]

I have a clip on macro lens for my phone

 

[Hardus nameous]

I'm no pro either but what kind of Nikon? I use a D3200 with film SLR lenses in manual mode, a Nikkormat FTN and a Yashica A.

1. Depends on your sensor/ film size, lens focal length and aperature. One of the nice things about digital is instant feedback on test shots.

2. Typically you'll want light behind you or to your side, elevation depends on the subject. Colour wise mixed colour light sources will play hell with white balance. Try to have one colour of light if possible.
Usually auto white balance works fine but occasionally I'll just tweak it in processing if I want to.

3. There's all kinds of "rules" but it's all subjective.

4. I don't know about auto focus, I use manual focus lenses. I also use circular polarizers most of the time, which help reduce glare.

5. Portraits aren't my strong suit but.... Rather than shoot with the lens wide open I prefer to stop down to my lens' sharpest (not smallest) aperature and keep the subject under the hyper focal distance to achieve bokeh (blurred background). Each lens has a different sharpest aperature, generally two or three stops down from wide open. The only way to find it is to experiment for every lens; digital cameras make that an easy ten second job.
Also look out for poles, trees, etc behind the subject. One of my favourite pictures I took was ruined by a pole growing out of the subject's back because I wasn't paying attention.

6. I don't know about that one, but I love black and white. I'm especially fond of Ilford's Delta 100 and Ortho 80 Plus. Usually If your white balance is halfway decent you shouldn't have to tweak colours. Also avoid oversaturation; a little teeny tiny bit looks great but many people take it to cartoonish levels. Contrast I usually set with the tone curves when I process in RawTherapee for digital. If you know the dynamic range of your camera and take the time to meter the scene accordingly you should be fine. I almost never do and usually wing it.

7. Don't forget, I suck so definitely stay open to the advice of others.
Cell phones take nice pictures, until you try to enlarge them. While they are digital cameras they can't beat DSLRs at control or resolution.

Edit: I forgot to say if you're shooting digital, shoot RAW!

 

[The Snark]

I'm no pro either but what kind of Nikon?

D3400 DSLR. Stock lens.
I think you mentioned around 10 things that went straight over my head.

Just to mention this thread should try to center on taking shots of spiders and other such close ups. But any info is appreciated.

One of my favourite pictures I took was ruined by a pole growing out of the subject's back because I wasn't paying attention

That one I learned from my ex. A fine art - photorealism painter. She would take shots filled with ultra ugly backgrounds because she would edit them out in the painting. Gave me a contrast perspective on what to absolutely avoid. That was actually a lot of fun. She had a photo to work from. All the eye would focus on was those ugly pipes or an unfocused part of someones head. Then in her painting with all that stuff gone a beautiful distant sunset gets revealed.

 

[Hardus nameous]

D3400 DSLR. Stock lens.
I think you mentioned around 10 things that went straight over my head.

Just to mention this thread should try to center on taking shots of spiders and other such close ups. But any info is appreciated.


That one I learned from my ex. A fine art - photorealism painter. She would take shots filled with ultra ugly backgrounds because she would edit them out in the painting. Gave me a contrast perspective on what to absolutely avoid. That was actually a lot of fun. She had a photo to work from. All the eye would focus on was those ugly pipes or an unfocused part of someones head. Then in her painting with all that stuff gone a beautiful distant sunset gets revealed.

Ah, ok. The D3400 is like mine but two models newer.
For spiders and such you're going to want a macro lens, bellows or extension tubes. Extension tubes would probably be the cheapest way to go. There are online calculators that will give you the reproduction ratio of your setup to see what tubes you'll need.

Then there's lighting, you don't necessarily need a dedicated macro flash on the front of your lens, but you'll need to light your subject very well and the built in flash on your camera usually won't work well that close.

 

[The Snark]

Let's simplify.
Say a person had a cell phone that can take quite nice pictures. How can that person determine the closest the camera can get to an object? How much depth of field they have? What the optimal lighting would be? The best background? How to properly hold it to frame the picture? Any tricks or tweaks that will improve color or contrast? What pitfalls to avoid? And if the camera is capable, how to zoom in, and when not to zoom in but move closer instead?

 

[HeartBum]

Let's simplify.
Say a person had a cell phone that can take quite nice pictures. How can that person determine the closest the camera can get to an object? How much depth of field they have? What the optimal lighting would be? The best background? How to properly hold it to frame the picture? Any tricks or tweaks that will improve color or contrast? What pitfalls to avoid? And if the camera is capable, how to zoom in, and when not to zoom in but move closer instead?

All depends on the phone. For instance, my iPhone X which is what I use for my photos, has a zoom capability of something ridiculous like 16x. However, it can actually only zoom 2x before it becomes grainy and pixelated because it’s not a telephoto lens. Therefore useless for long distance shots. Best idea is to check over a phone’s specifications and figure out what yours is and isn’t capable of, as some newer models do have telephoto lenses, normally recognised by 3 or more total lenses. Much like @me and my Ts said, I use a clip on macro lens for my phone. Pretty cheap off Amazon and perfect for capturing tiny details, some better than others depending on their focal length. Obviously you don’t want to have to get super close to a T for a decent photo. If it goes blurry, you’re either too close or too far away, it’s just about getting used to the equipment.

When it comes to lighting, I use a ring light which also clips onto my phone as this ensures the subject is completely lit. Can be anything from a flashlight to a lamp however. Lighting is the most important factor - too dark? Photo’s going to be grainy no matter what. Professionals use light boxes.

To frame a picture, namely humans, we use the rule of thirds. It’s different with T’s of course but just try to make sure your main focus (the eyes etc) are in the middle of the frame.

Colours and contrast are normally changed post-production in software like photoshop but some phones do have the option to edit photos, they’re not the best though. Pulling these up too much however will give the subject an unnatural look.

 

[Tarantulafeets]

Let's simplify.
Say a person had a cell phone that can take quite nice pictures. How can that person determine the closest the camera can get to an object? How much depth of field they have?

You can try slowly moving the camera closer and closer while tapping on the area you want to focus on, until it's not in focus anymore. Or you can try to go into manual mode if your phone can do that, and set the focus from there.

 

[Albireo Wulfbooper]

Let's simplify.
Say a person had a cell phone that can take quite nice pictures. How can that person determine the closest the camera can get to an object? How much depth of field they have? What the optimal lighting would be? The best background? How to properly hold it to frame the picture? Any tricks or tweaks that will improve color or contrast? What pitfalls to avoid? And if the camera is capable, how to zoom in, and when not to zoom in but move closer instead?

I'm strictly amateur, but have learnt some tricks with my phone camera that serve me pretty well. Playing with photographing small objects is a great way to figure a lot of this stuff out, since some of it will depend on your setup.

Lighting - in *most* cases, soft diffuse lighting is going to work better than hard direct lighting. There are lots of ways to get diffuse lighting - bouncing it off white surfaces, covering the light source with a thin white fabric, etc. This will reduce glare on shiny parts of the animal and reduce harsh shadows. One thing to keep in mind is that when you're working with macro photography, you always need more light than you expect! The more soft light you can get on your subject, the less grainy your photo will be, and the more detail you'll see at a given zoom level.

Backgrounds - usually you want something fairly soft and not too high-contrast, that's a different tonal and colour range from your subject. Avoid distracting shapes like big sticks. There's a lot of stuff with using the background to draw the eye toward the subject, but that gets a bit more advanced and would take too long to explain here

Zoom - most smart devices have two kinds of zoom: optical and digital. Optical zoom relies on the lens, whereas digital zoom is literally just making the pixels bigger. If your device automatically switches to digital zoom when it passes the optical zoom maximum, that's important information. Since my current phone has maximum 3x optical zoom, I'll sometimes set it to that and then physically move in closer if I need more zoom that that - I don't want it to switch to digital, because then I'm just getting less data. At that point it's equivalent to just cropping a photo.

If you're having trouble with automatic focus or automatic light metering, it can help to use a nearby still object to focus on. For instance, on my phone, I can lock focus on an object that's about the same distance from me as my subject is but a better colour or tone for the automatic light metering that my phone does. Then I can aim at my subject and use those locked settings to take several photos, slightly shifting the phone closer or further to ensure I get the right focus point in one of the shots. If you have burst mode, that can be helpful for this. Photographers often use little greyscale cards to help with light metering, and they work just as well on a smart device.

 

[Edan bandoot]

think artistically instead of scientifically, maybe that will help

 

[Arthroverts]

@CEC, @Arachnid Addicted, @mantisfan101, @Smotzer, @RezonantVoid, @Flexzone, @checkmate, @corydalis, @Cand, perhaps one of you could shed some light on this subject?

Thanks,

Arthroverts

 

[RezonantVoid]

I'm no professional either but I do personally think my pictures have improved exponentially over the last 12 months. All I use is my phone's camera, my phone is an LG G8S ThinQ, and I am astonished at it's ability to go up to 10x zoom. But I couldn't get the quality I wanted no matter how hard I tried at first.

I decided to use a portable and impressively powerful light mod for my GoPro and attach it to one of my GoPro's mini tripods, instead of using my phone's flashlight. Instantly, I was able to get the lighting angles I wished I had all along. By using the tripod mounted light, a sheet of paper as a clean background, and checking what level of exposure works best for each specimen, I got my phone to start focusing on the spider instead of the enclosures like in most of my previous photos.

All in all, I'd recommend having at least 1 small portable light source, a clear background of either black or white, and if you have really shaky hands, a cheap desktop tripod with a universal mounting point.

Some of my old pics


Some of my newer ones

 

[The Snark]

think artistically instead of scientifically, maybe that will help

My ex maintained I only have about 22 functional brain cells in the right half of my brain. Show me a photorealism painting of a gorgeous sunset and I'll instantly spot the horizon is tilted .5 of a degree. Give me a half hour to take in the beauty.

 

[mantisfan101]

1) lighting
2) editing isn’t always bad, but don’t overdo it
3) familiarize yourself with iso, exposure
Takes some time but you can take some pretty decent pics

photo below taken with iphone 11

 

[mantisfan101]

Also, get used to whatever camera you’re using. Play around with it, check out the settings, take experimental shots, do whatever, find your niche. I tried asking around other experienced photographers for help but found myself swept up…tbh I still have no clue what I’m doing to this day haha. The only thing you can do is take your time and practice.

Photo taken with sony alpha 7r iii with FE 90mm macro G OSS

 

[The Snark]

@mantisfan101 MUCH THANKS. You certainly have a formula or knack. I notice the iphone 11 has less depth of field but better focus.

 

[Wolfram1]

I have a huawai P10, yea, yea, i know terrible company right up there with apple and co., anyway if i am closer than around 30cm to the subject it gets horrible pictures, i need to stay at that distance and then zoom in, but no more than 3x or otherwise the pictures turn out crap. When it comes to cameras i use a NIKON F4 film camera but i am not going to waste a roll of film on something as tricky as a spider while i am still learning how to handle all the manual settings, portraits are hard enough and Focus stacking seems like an impossible alien technology a billion light years in the future XD.

 

[The Snark]

I have a huawai P10,

As a rule of thumb, avoid Huawei. The manufacture is farmed out or licensed all over the world. You have no clue as to what quality the components are or if they are even manufactured by Huawai or some factory making parts for Huawei of copies of parts.
A typical example is my wife was given a Huawei made in Germany. It quit and we took it to the Huawei authorized dealer and repair center. They took one glance at it and said it couldn't be fixed. They sold the exact same name and model there but it was entirely different. The parts of the German made one were only available in Germany.
Then we got another Huawei sold in Thailand that needed a battery. Nope. It was a Chinese Huawei with aftermarket parts including the battery. Most of the locally sold ones came from a different factory in China and were assembled locally and are entirely different from the locally made ones which use Chinese, Malaysian or Indian parts.
Consumers nightmare. Huawei is a world class whore built and serviced by the lowest bidder at the immediate moment.

 

[Wolfram1]

As a rule of thumb, avoid Huawei. The manufacture is farmed out or licensed all over the world. You have no clue as to what quality the components are or if they are even manufactured by Huawai or some factory making parts for Huawei of copies of parts.
A typical example is my wife was given a Huawei made in Germany. It quit and we took it to the Huawei authorized dealer and repair center. They took one glance at it and said it couldn't be fixed. They sold the exact same name and model there but it was entirely different. The parts of the German made one were only available in Germany.
Then we got another Huawei sold in Thailand that needed a battery. Nope. It was a Chinese Huawei with aftermarket parts including the battery. Most of the locally sold ones came from a different factory in China and were assembled locally and are entirely different from the locally made ones which use Chinese, Malaysian or Indian parts.
Consumers nightmare. Huawei is a world class whore built and serviced by the lowest bidder at the immediate moment.

oh i know a lot about it, back then i switched and it was just a quick "<edit>" to apple, because they stopped supporting the system on my old phones, mine actually has a "leica" camera lense, installed or rather something that is licenced under their name, in no way shape or form are they comparable to real leica objectives xd. Mine is holding up surprisingly well, probably because i didn't get the cheap version most people got at the time. There is always the cheap plastic model and the more expensive one for each release, very similar to the iphones.